dean dong ♪ - [screaming] no! - ♪ dean dong away? >> he was my first love. it was june 25th, 1988, ft. lauderdale, the day the mystery except in her case he really disappeared. began, when a young man named david jackson failed to meet his brother mark at the airport. >> it was a gut feeling that something was wrong and i knew it. desapareció, no está simplemente >> 15 years later, donna relived >> a rookie detective finally broke the case. that puzzling time. >> i said, oh, my gosh. >> a strange phone call revealed david's ex-wife barbara, by then a secret. remarried and living in arizona, got a call from david's worried mother. >> david needed to be gotten rid of. >> a killer revealed. case closed? not quite. barbara says she wasn't worried. not then. >> then we got the real story. >> i thought, well, okay, he was >> a bombshell revelation. was she really a bereaved ex? with one of his girlfriends and >> i'll always love david. she said, we're doing a missing >> or just maybe a black widow?

>> barbara brit ton is in the middle. person's report and i said, no, he's going to call me in a couple of days just like he >> buried secrets. also tonight -- always does and he never called. >> it's hard to think that that he never called. could happen to someone. >> a dive instructor and his >> one day turned into the next. police, family, everybody tried to find him. but kobt. wife on a dream trip to the tropics till a scuba adventure turns into disaster. >> started looking, searching, >> he surfaces screaming. canals, pipes, little bridges on >> she never reached the surface. dirt roads, anywhere, a car that what happened some 80 feet down looked like his drove by, you in prosecutors called it murder. did a u-turn and you chased it. >> how long did that go on? >> so this is the classic motivation, the other woman? >> that went on until they found >> yes. >> a wife lost in the deep. his car. >> which, more than three months later, turned out to be at the >> fighting for my life. >> a husband becomes the airport. accused. so did he just take off? his close friend didn't think >> he turned off her air supply, so. killed her under water. >> if he got on a plane and did that happen? >> absolutely not. >> now, hold your breath for the twist. he -- maybe he wanted to do something different and i was like, no, he wouldn't do that. >> that was one of the most >> for one thing, david had been preparing for the arrival in two surreal moments in my life. >> his complete story for the weeks of his 5-year-old son john. this was a big one, a month-long summer visit. >> he was preparing for this visit? >> oh, yeah, he wanted everything perfect.

first time, "the last dive." >> and right in the middle of preparations he vanished? welcome to "dateline," everyone, it didn't make sense. i'm lester holt. but the days turned into weeks, months, years. it's a case some called the perfect crime. the setting sure was perfect, an not a sign of david. island in the caribbean, a vacation for a stressed-out the please went on to newer couple from new england. cases but his mother never let but only one of them came back up, phoning, nagging, writing. she knew david was out there somewhere. alive. prosecutors would claim it was >> i wrote letters to oprah cold-blooded murder. see what you think happened in winfrey, to america's most those warm tropical waters wanted. and then i thought, okay, make i because even after two juries have spoken, this case had a whole new ending. can have a picture of him on the semis. here's dennis murphy. i did all of the letters. but it was -- it took me a long >> summer and water just seemed to go together in the lazy days. for most of us, a dunk in the time to finish any letter about backyard pool will suffice. him because i didn't want the ending to be like i thought it was. but for the more adventurous, a >> a little piece of her still ticket to paradise. hoping for good news. part of her mourning a loss. >> it's a majestic world. >> i found a therapist right away. it's just awe-inspiring. >> it's incredibly peaceful. she said take like 20 minutes every day, either scream and cry you're down there with the fish. in the morning, scream and cry at night. you look around you and it's >> can anybody who hasn't been amazing.

the closer you look, the more beautiful it gets. in your shoes understand what >> all of your senses are it's like for a mother? >> no. getting overloaded, your visual >> now years later the investigation was back in high gear. colors are just phenomenal. judy told the detective that in some corner of her heart she still hoped david might just >> david swain and his wife shelly tire shared that passion for scuba diving. turn up safely some day. so march of '99, they chartered the detective, however, not for a minute did she think was alive. had he died accidently, surely a sign would appear. a 45-foot sailboat and another couple. it doesn't get much better. when bodies are not found, it's >> was shelly looking forward to because someone intentionally it? hid him. >> oh, yeah. david jackson might show up, just not alive. it was a definitely a different >> and my wheels started turning and i started thinking, you know, we live in florida. experience for her. >> she liked to count fish with the crazy weather that we underwater. he liked to photograph. so what could go wrong? have and the water table that we have. as it turned out, quite a lot. , if he were ever buried they were wreck diving south of somewhere, somewhere along the the island of tortola when it happened. >> he immediately noticed that line he will pop up. >> maybe, detective thought, her breathing apparatus was out of her mouth. remains had popped up. >> i heard an emergency call

that there was a diving accident after all, it had been a decade and they needed assistance. and a half since he disappeared. she googled unidentified >> the body appeared to be lifeless. remains. >> what happened in 30 minutes >> it's going on 10:00, 11:00 time, 80 feet beneath the and i'm sure my husband is surface, would be examined and saying where, is that old girl. replayed in people's minds for >> one site after another, dead the next decade. how was it that an experienced end, until she got one created by a florida medical examiner. promising. diver like shelley tyre could be but exhausting. lost just like that? >> i'm there typing away and and when it happened, where typing and typing and it pops up exactly was her husband, a about 100 matches. master dive instructor who was >> but she was determined. her safety buddy on that dive? david's explanation would land him in the center of a far-reaching investigation. she finally win delled it down and tonight for the first time to a possible three. >> unwith of them really stands out for me that says white male and it says over 6 foot. he tells "dateline" the latest chapter. >> my mouth dropped open and i'm david's a tall guy. in shock again. >> and answers the tough questions. >> i don't know what happened. and he's a white male. possibly. i wasn't there. >> those particular bones, just >> give me a theory. >> i don't have a theory. a few partial skeletons, turned >> it's a decade-long story that up during possible construction at a walmart parking lot not far began here in coastal rhode island far from the beautiful from the place where david lived, surfaced just a year waters of the caribbean. after david dyed had been it was the early '90s when david gathering dust in storage for 15

and shelley met. years. he was the dive instructor and the detective went to see a she was the customer out on a boat. >> it was a rocky day, a little bumpy. forensic anthropologist but when a couple of the big tough guys the doctor measured the bones -- >> she comes out and says it's got sea sick so i paired up with looking like he's only about 5'9". her and went back in. >> still, she had a hunch that she had finally found david >> so she had some spunk? jackson and she wasn't the sort >> she had spunk. of person to give up on a hunch. i was showing her fish that she had never seen before. that's what got things started. >> shelley was a bundle of >> and i said, can we please do this one more time? she comes back and she says, honey, i was wrong the first time. energy, a 5 foot tall teacher she says, this person is and school administrator. she was as vif vash shous as he was quiet. anywhere between 5'9" and 6'1". i said, oh, my gosh, i think i've hit paid dirt. david was only too happy to show her the waters where he pursued his life's passion. teaching scuba at his dive shop. >> she want waited for a lab to compare samples and ten days here he is in 1997 giving a kayak lesson. later called the testing facility and she said, i hope >> it's just a very easy figure eight stroke. you're sitting down and i said why, and she said we have a 100% match? >> swain was known to his customers as an honest businessman and an active member and i said, what? because i'm not believing what of the community. i'm hearing. and likewise, the people in >> 15 years after he

disappeared, david jackson had finally been found. shelley's sir kell raved about her,. >> she was he have officer ves the question now was, what sent. happened to him? she was always on the move, always on the go. how did he end up here? coming up, a strange coincidence or was it? >> it's an erie feeling, you >> shelley who wore a bumble bee know, that he was in the area outfit to school once where she was head master of the middle that i didn't even know about. school. >> when "dateline" continues. he's looking for his dongle. we need a dongle? >> she had an ear for every yes! we need a dongle. brandon usually brings the dongle. child and when she spoke to you, susan do you have a dongle? no i didn't bring my dongle. she looked you in the eye and she didn't care. we're having a little dongle issue. the world fell away. she was there focused on you and dooley has a dongle. listening to what you had to say t was great. i don't have a dongle sir. let's get started. >> and always by shelley's side, do you guy's have a dongle? we're not using a dongle. see. it's pretty cool huh? ahh, nice. her constant companion tori. her furry comfort was always share files instantly. only on the galaxys3. available at sprint. available to a bad pupil having a bad day. they married in 1993. they didn't have children together but she quickly endured use the points we earn with our citi thankyou card for a relaxing vacation. ♪ sometimes, we go for a ride in the park. herself to his two, a son and a daughter from a previous marriage. >> did she fit in with them okay? >> oh, the kids loved her. maybe do a little sightseeing. >> what do you think that was

between you two? or, get some fresh air. >> a love of adventure, a love of nature. you couldn't find somebody that but this summer, we used our thank youpoints to just hang out with a few friends in london. [ male announcer ] the citi thankyou visa card. had more liveliness and gumption and determination. >> if there was a marital speed redeem the points you've earned to travel with no restrictions. bump t. was shelley's weekday commute. rewarding you, every step of the way. in applebee's new florentine house sirloin... the private school where she worked was a long slog from coastal rhode island. [ male announcer ] aaand we're good. she was probably seeing more of tori the dog than david her husband. no, i was going to... [ male announcer ] all you need to know >> i think it was some god awful amount. is the florentine house sirloin is awesome. it's one of the new fresh flavors of summer, starting at just $9.99 at applebee's. >> at least some four hours back see you tomorrow. and forth behind the wheel? >> yes. >> did that get to her? >> there were times where it would get to her. "yoplait strawberry orange sunrise just made my day!" thanks tori! that is a great way to start the day. i also like lemon crème pie in the afternoon she would be up at the crack of and red velvet cake at night. dawn and home late at night. and...but then, ok that's just me. >> spring of 1999 would be their yoplait. it is so good. time to escape the grind and enjoy together what they loved best, the water. >> so come spring break that year, she and her husband are going to go to the british virgin islands and dive. >> yes. >> in one of the most beautiful

oceans of the world? >> exactly. >> but, of course, that trip, that last dive would go so horribly wrong. how could anyone make sense of the deeply sad and mysterious death of shelley tyre? >> when we come back, disaster underwater. >> he surfaces screaming? >> what had happened beneath the surface? >> he's got another diver with h him and i realize it's shelley. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] what's the point of an epa estimated 42 miles per gallon if the miles aren't interesting? the lexus ct hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection. the send a notebrid. stay informed

catch a show. make your point make a memory make a masterpiece. read something watch something and learn something. do it all more beautifully, with the retina display on ipad. but not for your eyes. they're still so tired looking. with olay challenge that, with regenerist anti-aging eye roller. its hydrating formula with caffeine conditioning complex, perks up the look of eyes. it works in the blink of an eye. it was good detective work that identified david jackson's remains, what was left of them. but a fewer chance that a partial skull was found at all. >> they were getting ready to build a walmart and a construction worker came across some bones. he reported it. they went out and dug up a bunch of bones. >> and put the bones somewhere

and forgot about it? >> they were found about a year after he disappeared and they sat in the morgue for 15 years. >> sat there all those years, even those that loved david held out a shred of hope that he was alive somewhere. >> as far as i know he was disappeared, he was missing. perks up the look of eyes. >> but now detective valasquez had a hard truth to tell. he was dead. not missing. he had been murdered all of there's a place where the sky is always blue those years ago, likely before and the kids always eat their vegetables. his friends and family even knew that he was gone, which put a because the salad there is always served final on his mother's hope for with the original hidden valley ranch. return and apparently an lt's the way ranch is supposed to taste. ex-wife's what ifs. >> were you seriously thinking, and try new italians and vinaigrette's from hidden valley. maybe some day i'll get back together with him? >> when it's your first love, look no further than the new chocolate chip frappé from mccafé. you always think, wow, you know, what if?

every bit as delicious as the mccafé frappés you love, >> strange how things turn out. only this one has a bit more wow. barbara had moved back to florida, remarried again, had a bits of chocolate chips in every sip, blended into mocha and caramel, daughter, took a job at walmart, but still held a candle for all topped with a double drizzle of chocolate and sweet caramel. the deeply sad and mysterious david even as he lay under the ground practically next door to continuecontinues the very walmart where she worked. ffrz for a little bit. >> what did that do to you? >> it's an erie feeling, you the simple joy of the perfect sip. know, at he was in that area that i didn't even know about. >> such an odd coincidence, too odd, maybe? time for a chat. detective called barbara got herself invited over to barbara's house. barbara seemed to have no problem talking about david. >> she said she cared about him a lot. and i say, well, how is david as a father? well, david became abusive towards johnny physically and emotionally, verbally. >> wait a minute. this was a whole new wrinkle. up till now, everything about

david's history had been squeaky-clean. >> as an investigator and as a mom, i began to say, did you ever call the police? she said, oh, no. i never called the police. she says, i just thought he tortola, the british virgin would change. she proceeds to tell me that, i islands, sailing, diving, documented the injuries with postcard perfect beaches, how photographs. never produced any photographs for me. shelley tyre looked forward to >> barbara changed her story, it. said it was really her father, she and her husband on a boat with another couple and their not her, who accused david of young son. abusing his son and today she questions the allegation. >> by dad was looking to a week of sailing for which ever way fit their fancy. counselors and having them evaluate it and stuff like that >> the women went shopping for because i would just be like, this is david, you know, what the provisions for the caribbean are you talking about? soul. >> but, of course, the detective then they motored out to the couldn't talk to barbara's father about abuse or murder or holiday at sea and to this day anything else. no one can say there was harry britton had been dead for anything amiss. years but barbara had more information for the detective. all on board had hoped for. she recalled a troubling they dove the british vir jins conversation she had had with greatest hits, salt island, david.

wreck of the rhone. on the morning of march 12th, they set acourse for cooper at the time, david was working for coca-cola, delivering the island at a site known as the product. twin wrecks. keith royal has been down to the ze told me that someone was placing drugs on his coke a cola twin wrecks hundreds of times. route and through his route they >> there are two wrecks sitting were being taken off of the truck. i said, wow. that's pretty serious. right next to each other, bow to she says, yeah. >> interesting. stern and there's a gap between >> very. them. >> to the detective, that >> david swain and his friend sounded like a made-up story, almost as if she was trying to christian were both certified divert suspicion away from scuba instructors. someone. and shelley tyre was no novice. an ex-wife would qualify, of course, as a person of interest in her logbook she had recorded over 350 dives. in this kind of case but as vel now, divers with comparable las squez and we learn, barbara experience will tell you that had an alibi. diving the twin wreck site with she wasn't anywhere near florida, she said, when david disappeared. the nice, flat sandy bottom, great visibility is about as challenging as a walk in the >> i was not in florida. i was in arizona in the apartment. park on a sunny day. at about noon that day, the i was nowhere around here. caribbean soul tied up at the >> and lacking any further evidence, the detective was stalled, dead in the water,

unless maybe the man barbara was married to at the time knew twin wrecks, and in a sometimes tourist ocean, they would have something, michael wolff. the dive site all to themselves. then david and shelley made their dive plan. a little checking revealed wolf >> this particular time it was had been married seven times. decided that we'd go down first, number six, a woman named nancy shelley and i. >> david swain says she and graham, lived in alabama. shelley made a routine entry val las kwez called her. into the water and then made >> i told her, i'm investigating the disappearance of david jackson and she said to me, how their way down over the reef and much evidence do you have against him? over to the twin wreck site. and i said, i can't discuss the evidence with you but i can tell you that it's enough for me to >> she went off with her slates put him away right now. and started counting fish and i started taking pictures. i was just totally bluffing. i had really nothing. >> as they each did their i'm just throwing it out there. underwater thing, they went >> uh-huh. their separate ways. >> you know, fishing that long line f. something bites, i'm >> when i get pretty much around reeling it in. the wreck, sir couple navigate the wreck, i don't see them and she says, honey, let me call you back. anywhere in the vicinity. >> the minutes tick, by, val las she's either go gone somewhere kwez waits by the phone and when else so i head off to the reef nancy calls back, what she said blew the case wide open. >> she started telling me about

looking for her. >> when is your recollection of who was involved, how it last seeing shell looer? happened, where it happened, >> as best i can recall, it what they did, how they did it, would be when they parted after how they planned it. about ten minutes into the dive, >> they? shelley appeared fine. why, yes, they. and, by the way, beware the but somehow at some point should sting of an ex-wife's tale. it went amiss. >> she says, i'm going to tell david said he spoke to you everything you need to know. christian. >> when we come back, the >> my first question is, is shelley back yet? ex-wife ready to spill. >> the first shot didn't kill him. he said, no, i said okay. looks like you're going in. >> at that moment, is there any we had to shoot him again. >> when "buried secrets" alarm? continues. the sweltering heat po >> no he wasn't alarmed, i wasn't alarmed. >> christian started his dive and gave a statement that between the line and the wreck, he found something odd, shelley's fin like this one sticking out of the sand. when he got closer to the wreck, he found shelley herself lying linger a little longer. the health warning... plus the on the ocean floor face up, eyes latest figures on b-g-e's power restoration open, near one end of the boats. efforts. and with the triple-digit temperatures looming ... the "cool" device emergency room doctors can use on patients to he quickly grabbed her and brought her to the surface. >> and then christian does come rapidly help those suffering from

back? heat-stroke. tonight on 11news, ze doesn't come back. right after dateline n-b-c. he surfaces screaming. >> what did you hear in his ♪ voice? words or alarm? >> the word was emergency. >> swain hopped in the dinghy and sped over to him. >> when i get close, i see that he's got another diver with him and as i get closer i realize it's shelley. >> how much trouble was shelley in. >> the idea that she was ♪ unresponsive right away was a huge problem. ♪ >> christian and david said they both attempted cpr but shelley's body did not respond. david, trained as an emt, said [ male announcer ] everyone likes she's gone. a bit of order in their life. virtual wallet helps you get it. >> the part that got me was her keep track of spending, move money with a slide, and use the calendar. pupils were saucers and not all to see your money doing anything. how you want. that's what broke my heart and ♪ brought this whole cal lamb tea how you want. to where we are today. look at this bed! >> back on the boat, swain this nightstand! this wardrobe! called for help. the first to respond was. what are you doing here? >> the scene was somber and you're in ikea. shelley was laying in the kokpit my dream bedroom is in ikea?

and everybody obviously was very, very destroyed. yes. what's that bedroom over there? >> back on the island, shelley was pronounced dead. that's your husband's dream bedroom. an autopsy was conducted at a local funeral home. the cause of death, drowning. whatever your style, take home your dream bedroom together. the medical examiner ruled it an accident. ikea. the life improvement store. swain was free to leave tortola and return to his own little island of jamestown, road island. to try to settle back into the routine he had for years, running his dive shop but now without his shelley. years later, though, he would return to tortola but this time in handcuffs. coming up, called an accident, could that drowning have been deliberate? a dramatic reenakment on tape. >> we have now found out what we wanted to find out. >> when "dateline" continues. t. start with all the fresh salad and warm breadsticks you want. t. choose 2 appetizers made for sharing. then 2 entrées from 6 of our favorites. classics like eggplant parmigiana

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david jackson was murdered in 1988 in florida. that much, detective donna velasquez could say for certain. after a year of phone calls and late nights, all she could come up with was an increasingly web of relationships. david jackson was married to barbara britton. her father disliked david. barbara later married wolf and [ horn honks ] they divorced and he married two ♪ oh, those were the best of days ♪ more times. but now finally one of wolf's ♪ i still feel the summer rays ♪ that graced our backs as we went down the lane ♪ ex-wives, a woman named nancy, was telling her she knew everything about what happened to david. [ horn honks ] >> can you tell me again? [ male announcer ] when your car is more >> i know how he was killed and than just a car to you, what they did with him. the right insurance matters. are you getting the coverage options you need >> how did she know? and the discounts you deserve? for an agent or quote, call 800-my-coverage according to the ex, michael or visit travelers.com.

drank, a lot. >> every night he would almost down a whole bottle of scotch and i guess he just needed to talk. >> and the story wolffe told implicated more than just himself. here's what happened, as nancy heard it. wolf and harry britton rented a hotel room on that long july night, invited david to a meeting there. >> and when he gets at the hotel, they have a very small conversation and michael shot david in the head. >> he told me he had to get so drunk to do it and that the first shot didn't kill him. he had to shoot him again. >> after which, as nancy relayed the story -- >> they did take his car to the airport and left it there. then they took him over to -- i mean, there was an empty lot there. >> uh-huh. >> and that's where he buried him. >> he did not spare the detail, said nancy. >> and he did tell me he poured

some corrosive and i think it was lime is what he poured over the body. >> sure enough, that was consistent with the investigation. >> along with that story came what sounded like a motive. david disappeared, you remember, as he was preparing for a visit from his 5-year-old son john. >> they decided david needed be rid of because they didn't want him in his life. >> david killed just to keep him out of his son's life? >> and, boom, it clicked for me all of a sudden, i said, wow, that's over child custody. when we came home and looked that's why he's not here today. at the phone and saw there were >> that was the motive? 12 messages, i immediately thought somebody died. >> that was the motive. >> that was wolffe's confession a true story or just >> colleen remembers the day alcohol-fueled braf vad doe? there was no way to know for they lost their headmaster sure but it was enough to bring shelley tyre. >> how did you take the news? >> i cried for three months in a roechlt it's hard. about the arrest in october 2004 of michael wolfe, now living in ohio. it's a hard thing to think that but an arrest is not a

someone -- that could happen to someone. >> and not just anyone. conviction made and as michael but someone so full of life, as wolffe cooled his heels, he sent vivacious, energetic as shelley tyre. a letter and centered on a what had caused her to drown while sub ba diving off the conversation with his ex-wife barbara's father harry a few months before the murder. coast of tortola. a reporter who writes for the back home, david swain, always a man of few words, shared few broward county new times read the letter. details, even with good friends, all michael would admit to was like local marine owner bill munger. >> do you remember the first time you saw him? meeting harry in a park near the >> yeah, there were tears from walmart over dltz looking the both of us. >> but the talk here along place where the bones would come out. >> michael looked over to that coastal rhode island was that plot of land and said, well, if david swain wasn't acting the you needed to bury a body, that would be a good place to do it. way a grieving widower should. some say he seemed detached. and then he concluded his letter with, and i don't know if he had listened or not. to others it looked like he was living it up on the $600,000 he >> apparently he did. received after shelley's death. and a few months after losing >> if michael wolfe had really his wife, he started dating again. a story began to buzz on main not known anything beyond that point, it would get him off the hook and leave it in the hands of harry britton. >> so michael was pinning the street about how shelley had murder on no one but harry, who

was safely dead and could tell no tales. been found under water missing some of her diving gear. but she believed she had enough >> certainly if you went up and evidence to bring michael wolfe to stand trial for the murder of down the avenue here, you would david jackson. find, you know. >> people on both sides of the >> we did the arrest warrant and issue. within a couple of days we were >> could it be, even remotely possible, that david swain had flying out to ohio to ex tridiet michael wolfe back to tlor da. >> how did he react? something to do with his wife shelley's death? >> he said some pretty harsh words. >> what did he say? ever since swain returned from tortola with their daughter's >> he said, i'm [ bleep ]. body, they demanded answers from >> finally, after 15 years, she their son-in-law, answers that weren't forthcoming. had made sure someone was going to be held accountable for the >> the first moment i heard it, death of david jackson. >> it was the culmination of 16 i kept saying to him, but you had the buddy system. you were there. months of such a long, grueling up and down tiresome investigation of nights of not sleepings, of days of going to he just kept saying, i wasn't there. >> so he kept saying why did you work and living off you have leave her? coffee. i thought, you know what, this is what it's all about. >> yeah, why did i let this >> it was november 2007 when happen. >> his first face-to-face

meeting with his in-laws ended in a shout out and for the next michael wolfe went on trial for three years their suspicion of murder. after so many years, any foul play only grew. physical evidence was long gone but what prosecutors did have her parents filed a wrongful was the ver gal confession, the death suit in civil court claiming swain was involved in drunken story his ex-wife that shelley's death. >> nothing that happens in the he had told her. court takes care of our pain and whne, check mate, another ex-wife told police virtually our loss. the same story. >> i'm very, very emotional, >> he told me he shot him in the yes. head and he told me that he had >> the tyres hired experts to a silencer on the gun. thoroughly investigate shelley's drowning. after traveling to tortola, the >> now she, too, was called to the stand. that was enough. experts formulated this scenario the jury was out less than an hour. the verdict was guilty. at the sentencing, life in which they then reenacted on videotape, that david swain attacked shelley under water, prison, david jackson's family approaching her from behind, shutting off her air supply and confronted michael wolfe, not then holding her down until she drowned. it was a being showing allegation indeed. just to condemn him, fwou ask a question because there was still a piece missing, something that didn't make sense. and one that was never seriously what was david doing in that challenged because david swain's motel room the night they killed him? lawyer fell ill and swain himself chose not to appear in court. >> why didn't you take the civil why dewaid he walk into that tr? >> mr. britton was ten minutes suit, it seems to outsiders, down the road.

more seriously. it looks like you kissed this david is not a stupid child at off and it was a very serious 24. event. why would mr. britton want to see him in a hotel? >> they demanded there would be >> in the civil world, he who has the most money will always no justice, they told wolfe, always win. unless everyone was held not only did they have the most accountable. money, hi no lawyer. outside the courtroom, david's so where was there any chance of brother encountered the state's me winning? attorney and said, he's going to >> at the end of the trial, tell you. he said, he's not going to tell me anything. though, david swain did make a surprise ameans. he said, i saw it in his eyes. le tell you. >> in fact, it was two days and a last-ditch effort to represent himself. he then called his sole witness, later when wolfe finally his daughter who described how confessed the true measure of his guilt and gave police his father showed genuine emotion when shelley was lost. firsthand his unedited version of events the night they say they buried david jackson in the >> you told us the story about shifting florida clay. was someone else involved? shelley drowning. oh, yes, said michael wolfe. she certainly was. you were tearful and angry. coming up, what made david go to that motel? >> david swain was found >> it was a woman who was on the phone. david takes the phone, comes out responsible for shelley tyre's death. though swain couldn't pay, he

a while later, he's all spruced filed for bankruptcy months up, ready to go out. >> when "dateline" continues. before. [ male announcer ] it isn't just your mammogram. >> we have now found out what we wanted to find out, what exactly happened. >> the friends who stood by him throughout were shocked by what they saw as nothing less than a miscarriage of justice. >> there was no cross-examination. nothing went on. it was totally a one-sided trial. >> but that civil verdict did catch the attention of the authorities a world away. down here in tortola, the british virgin islands. officials here had ruled shelley tyre's death in 1999 as an accident but the fine print red, it's your teenager's first varsity game. an accident unless proven otherwise. it isn't just your annual exam. that judgment against swain in civil court gave the authorities it's your daughter's wedding. did you know with your health insurance here fresh prosecutorial you may now have some preventive benefits ammunition. tortola reviewed the evidence with no co-pays or out-of-pocket costs? from the civil case and made an extradition request. eight years after her death, it isn't just your cholesterol screening. u.s. marshals showed up at the it's all the tomorrows you're looking forward to. dive shop and arrested swain for the murder of his wife. learn more at healthcare.gov. >> david swain is headed back to

the caribbean but this is no vacation. [ male announcer ] just when you think you have it all... >> swain is being held without bail. something thinner and sexier comes along to replace you. >> this time, swain wouldn't take any chances. the new samsung series 9 he would launch a vigorous with the intel core i5 processor. defense but he'd now have to it's time for some fresh air. plan it from his new home a. stifling cell in tortola's prison, a fortress high up on a food you love is a blt with hellmann's. it's made with real ingredients like cage-free eggs bluff facing the ocean, where the view can't be beat but comes on the a price that no one wants for the unmistakable taste to pay. when we come back a. that can only be hellmann's. criminal trial begins with some bring out the best. surprising revelations. in style with lowe's. another diver in the life of get $5 off valspar paint & primer in one. david swain? >> so this is the classic motivation, the classic ♪ ingredient of murder sometimes, the other woman? and now, with the temperature on the rise, >> yes. >> when "the last dive" continues. there's no better time to take 10% off major appliances. get $5 off valspar paint & primer in one. plus, you can also choose 18 months special financing ♪ on purchases of $299 or more and now, with the temperature on the rise, with your lowe's consumer credit card. there's no better time to take 10% off major appliances. so you'll have a lot more than just fireworks to ooh and ahh about. plus, you can also choose 18 months special financing lowe's. never stop improving. on purchases of $299 or more

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♪ every little thing gonna go my way ♪ ♪ i woke up to a light bulb on ♪ every little thing is possible now ♪ [ female announcer ] kraft singles have no artificial flavors and they're always made with milk so all you taste is something amazing. ♪ life is amazing with the love that i found ♪ in november of 2007, the man who shot david jackson to death ♪ was found guilty of the crime and sent to prison for the rest of his life. but a couple of days after he was sentenced, wolfe sent out word that he was ready to tell the rest of the story. sure, he said he was the trigger man and, yes, his father-in-law was determined to get rid of david permanently. but to set their trap, to lure david to the kill site, the motel, they needed bait and that bait, said wolfe, was barbara. barbara who did not require percent situation. quite the contrary, said mr. wolfe. >> barbara britton is in the middle. from what i was able to learn

about david, he would have never gone to that hotel room to meet harry britton. he would have never gone to that ♪ life is amazing with the love that i found ♪ hotel room to meet michael what's the hold up? wolfe. he's looking for his dongle. we need a dongle? he would have gone there to meet barbara. yes! we need a dongle. brandon usually brings the dongle. susan do you have a dongle? no i didn't bring my dongle. >> the woman who claimed to hold a torch all those years is the we're having a little dongle issue. dooley has a dongle. very same woman who called him on the phone and enticed him to i don't have a dongle sir. go to that hotel room to be killed. >> they needed to use barbara as let's get started. do you guy's have a dongle? we're not using a dongle. see. it's pretty cool huh? ahh, nice. the lure because david still had feelings for barbara. >> evidence? david had a roommate and that roommate heard david take a share files instantly. only on the galaxys3. available at sprint. phone call just before he went out that night. >> he was pretty sure it was a woman who was on the phone. david takes the phone, goes into his room, comes out a little while later, he's all spruced up, ready to go out, he's got a smile on his face, combing his hair, he's putting on his cologne and david jackson left the apartment at that point. that was the last that any of his friends saw him at that point.

>> what really happened at the motel? wolfe said he hid in the bathroom when david arrived. >> barbara answered and he was glad to see her. they sat on the edge of the bed and barbara had a stun gun and barbara hit david with a stun gun. >> but the stun gun malfunctioned so wolfe stepped out of the bathroom with his gun. >> he had the gun wrapped in the david swain had spent two years in the small prison cell towel and about that time harry on the caribbean island of tortola. britton came into the room and >> the only time i was out of my said, he's not dead yet, he's still breathing. shoot him again. so he said i thought him again cell was one or two hours a day and that shot killed him and that i would walk around. every day that they let me out, i would walk for that entire they put david's body in the time. >> but now swain would finally have his day in court. back of harry's vw and the charge, murdering his wife transported it to the site where they had already predug the grave so all they had to do was shelley tyre on a scuba dive ten lay the body in there and cover years before. he pleaded not guilty and with him up. >> but that wasn't the end of sa stake so much higher this wolfe's tale. time, maybe decades in prison, a year after the murder he got a call from harry britton. >> he learned that they were

swain came prepared with a going to build a walmart. caribbean counsel and a top team >> where the bones were? from boston. >> it's going to be a lengthy >> where the bones were. trial. the government expects to call witnesses for another 12 days. >> and harry, michael wolfe told >> but shelley tyre's parents also had their attorney. him, you've got to come back down here and move the bones. he had won the civil suit against swain back in rhode island and was now helping >> wolfe flew back to florida. tortola prosecutors. >> the prosecution wasn't going >> michael says he found what he could and put them in a trash to conduct any further investigation. they had -- they had something bag and put the bones out for that was neatly packaged, in the trash in a plastic bag. their view, and they presented >> michael wolfe's story seemed that in the criminal case in to tell it all and to cast tortola. >> the civil suit became the barbara britton in a leading role. criminal suit? >> exactly. >> no cameras were allowed in and once she heard that story, detective vel las questions was court but they could audiotape convinced, barbara, determined to keep david away from their the criminal proceedings. speaking first of motive. son, was a pull partner in his murder. >> what are the chances that >> this man here, his wife is either michael wolfe or harry britton forced her to take part in this scheme? killed and all his dreams came >> forced? >> yeah. true, all his dreams came true. >> you don't have to force a willing participant. >> dreams he would argue about >> and you believe she was insurance money, more than willing? >> yes. $600,000 and another woman in >> the detective kobt help

remembering, she said, what swain's life. barbara told her when she heard a legal scheme executed, he that david's bones had been identified. said, in an underwater setting. >> strangely enough, the first the autopsy had shown no underlying medical reasons for shelley to have drowned. thing she said to me was, how many bones do you have? >> come on. >> she had participated in so the key to what did happen to retrieving those bones and they shelley tyre, the prosecution said, was her diving gear, how thought they had gotten them all. when they had left about 50% it was damaged, her senator kell missing its mouth piece, the behind. strap to her mask broken, the pin that held the strap in >> all this time, said the detective, she just knew barbara place, gone. that kind of damage happens had been lying and now she had rarely in the world of scuba, the goods. experts said, and only when we asked barbara about all of great force is applied to the this, of course, about her ex-husband's allegations that equipment. she was deeply involved in the >> they have never, ever seen this strap broken like this murder. during a dive. never, ever. and she denied it. >> and you had no part in killing david? >> and what about shelley tyre's >> no, i did not. i had no knowledge and i had no lone flipper all by itself stuck part and, you know, little lies in the sand, toe first, the heel here and there that mike keeps changing his story, i think it's strap pulled back? just psychotic. the prosecution said it could have ended up in that position it's just psychotic for the if shelley's foot was yanked out of it as it was forcibly shoved into the sand. things that he has said. i was 21 back then. the prosecution put forth the i was very -- i don't think company plan much, you know, i

same theory that tyre's attorney had back in the civil trial, that the scuba gear was in such mean, i'm not stupid but i'm not that smart. >> now, said barbara, it was all disarray, that only one thing, shelley tyre had been attacked under water. >> what this shows is a continued struggle with a human ex-husband michael wolfe's doing and says that that make essence being. of the strange behavior, >> and the prosecution says the particularly the time that david disappeared, when her ex-husband only human on that dive with was not with her at home. shelley was her husband and dive >> he would always go on business trips and every time i buddy david swain. asked he would tell me, don't but swain had always insisted he worry about it, you know, i've was nowhere near shelley when she died. rather, he and shelley had gone got business to take care of. >> but she knew nothing at all their separate ways after reaching the wrecks. >> i have a vague recollection about the murder, she insisted. of sir couple navigating the until the penny dropped during a conversation years later with her father. wrecks, poking around the wrecks >> i wonder, you know, what he's and seeing shelley still interested in looking at doing, if he's coming back, i something around there and wonder, you know, where he's at that's the last time i saw her or what happened? as i swam off towards the reef. >> but now the prosecutor says and he would just be like, you don't have to worry. that swain's own words in this he's not around to bother you. >> what was that like to deal taped deposition proves that he with? >> very, very rough. it's my dad. was still with shelley after she died. it's my dad. listen to how long he says he i couldn't accept it. was at the wreck before leaving

for the reef. and what satisfaction did it get, you know? did it satisfy him because it >> how much time did you spend at the wreck? sure didn't satisfy me. >> not long. certainly less than ten minutes. >> still, in december 2007, it was detective vel las kwez who got what she wanted. probably more than five. she had worked hard to prove >> and after you were five to what she believed to be true. ten minutes at the wrecks, what did you do? that barbara was an integral >> me yan dered over towards the part of the plot to kill david reef area to see if there was jackson. something there to see. and finally now barbara britton was arrested and charged with >> but according to the murder. prosecutor, five to ten minutes into the dive is exactly when and now perhaps the jury could answer the question. shelley tyre died, and here is why as laid out by the experts. do you believe this woman? based on the amount of oxygen used up from shelley's air tank a woman whose hands literally on that fateful last dive, they shook, whose tears flowed at the estimated that she had taken her mere mention of her departed last breath at about eight ex-husband? minutes into the dive, meaning do you believe the things she said? after eight minutes under water >> all the time it was, he's she drowned. missing. >> coming up -- could barbara's ex have a reason to lie about the experts say given the eight minutes in, swain would have her role in the murder? she says yes, he held a grudge against her. been write where shelley was when she was dying. >> make you pay the price? >> yeah. >> obviously he was there with >> and, then, her day in court. >> i do.

her. and coming up sunday on "dateline," she was being turned that goes to tell you, according to him, and looks back and sees her and she's fine, that cannot into this kind of stepford wife. be true. >> why would he do it, the >> it's the hottest story of prosecutor asks? just take a snapshot of shelley this long, hot summer week. and david's life before their the celebrity split that's made a giant splash. >> it's like an escape from vacation, he says. shelley tyre had recently taken alcatraz. a new job to spend more time >> katie holmes versus tom with her husband but she had also taken a paycheck. cruise. what's really behind it? >> so there's really almost a third person in that marriage, the prosecutor said to swain the third person being the marriage? this meant she couldn't sink >> absolutely. >> and what's coming next. money into his dive shot. this means slooel was around the house more but is this what >> this is an incredibly unusual situation, for a man who's controlled everything in his life. >> inside the looming battle. swain really wanted? the answer, prosecutor said, swain's second motive. >> it's a risky business when >> he had started to have an the new chocolate chip frappé attraction to another woman towards the end of the year before she died. >> that other woman was mary grace basler, dr. basler. she was a local choir prak for and a diver who frequented david's shop. david swain had tried to kiss her during an evening drinking

from mccafé. wine at her home but she rejected his advances because he every bit as delicious as the mccafé frappés you love, was married. >> so this is the classic only this one has a bit more wow. bits of chocolate chips in every sip, motivation, the classic blended into mocha and caramel, ingredient to murder sometimes, the other woman, huh? >> yes, that is a motive. all topped with a double drizzle >> and then there is a letter of chocolate and sweet caramel. that swain wrote to mary, some you've never had a frappé like this. before his wife's death. better get your hands on one quick, 'cause it's only here for a little bit. in one he asks a particular playmate to join him in vermont. the simple joy of the perfect sip. he calls her soulmate mary. another he signs, with all my love, david. most ominously this one, dated five months before shelley's life which reads, life has definitely gotten more complicated. i want to be with you but can't change this mess any time soon. why not divorce? because a prenup prevented either from getting money if they parted ways. but swain saw another way. the radical new macbook pro with retina display. ♪ >> under the will, if she died, he'd benefitted from her entire estate.

>> in fact, with shelley gone, innovation...in every dimension. david would get the dive shop, the money, and the girl. just two months after his wife's ♪ death, he and mary basler started dating. >> in fact, they became a couple following shelley tyre's death? nice'n easy colorblend foam >> yes, they did, for about a is winning top beauty awards hands down! year and a bit and then she broke it off. with beautiful tones and highlights... >> lastly, williams also brought no other foam lasts longer. to the stand a trio of witnesses and no other foam is product of the year. check out colorblend foam. only from nice'n easy. critical to the prosecution's case. christian, who said swain hardly about how older people are becoming more and more antisocial, attempted cpr on shelley even so i was really aggressive with my parents though cpr training mandates never stop until help arrives. about joining facebook. my parents are up to 19 friends now? >> by all accounts, there was so sad. brief cpr. ♪ >> brief meaning a few minutes? >> a few minutes. i have 687 friends. >> keith royal testified when he this is living. what!? pulled his boat up to the caribbean soul for assistance, that is not a real puppy. that's too small to be a real puppy. he was surprised to be told, no [ male announcer ] venza. thanks. from toyota. >> he offered my offer of cpr and oxygen and i thought it was a little strange.

>> another prosecution witness was phil brown, the island dive shop owner who had rented the two couples their scuba gear. brown said that swain later came into the shop after the so-called accident and told him to give away shelley's dive gear. added up, said the prosecutor, and you have a husband who wanted his wife's dive gear deep six before a proper investigation. a husband who didn't really try to revive his wife, a husband who wanted her dead. but tides in the caribbean, like everywhere else, run in and out. for the first time in ten years of rumors and lawsuits, a jury would hear a true defense from david swain and the prosecutor's account that seemed as clear as barbara britton, the woman who sobbed at the mere mention a virgin islands' dive site would become murky and clouded over. of david jackson's name was now coming up -- >> at her place with a glass of wine? in jail awaiting trial for killing him. >> i'm not going to deny that. exactly where barbara belonged, said detective donna vel las

questions. >> david swain tells "dateline" his complete story for the first time. >> she made it happen, she was will it help or hurt his case? when "dateline" continues. the instigator as well as the one in the middle? [ snoring ] >> hi no doubt in my mind that [ male announcer ] introducing zzzquil sleep-aid. she was the catalyst. [ snoring ] >> barbara, meanwhile, maintained her innocence, claims [ snoring ] there was a certain reason [ male announcer ] it's not for colds, michael wolfe lied about her it's not for pain, it's just for sleep. that way. [ snoring ] it was payback, she says, for [ male announcer ] because sleep is a beautiful thing. [ birds chirping ] something that happened when they were married. and here came another one of introducing zzzquil, the non-habit forming sleep-aid from the makers of nyquil. those odd stories. earlier, remember, there was the one suggesting drug running on ♪ david's delivery truck. now a story about michael and gun running. in applebee's new lemon shrimp fettuccine >> i was putting away laundry is here just in time for summer. lemons -- [ male announcer ] is this gonna take a really long time? one day and i saw a bulge in a i haven't even -- [ male announcer ] here's the part you really care about. dress shirt pocket. >> yeah. the new lemon shrimp fettuccine tastes incredible. it's one of the new fresh flavors of summer >> and there was quite a bit of starting at just $9.99 at applebee's. money there and when he got home see you tomorrow. from work that night i confronted him on it and he told me that he was doing gun runs to haiti. >> barbara said she told the

police about wolfe's alleged gun running. >> and he got mad and even told a cellmate of his -- >> you're going to pay the price? >> yeah. >> interestingly. wolfe hasn't commented but keith, barbara's defense attorney, suggested wolfe had a much more practical motive. >> michael wolfe was initially offered a 15-year plea bargain to testify against whoever his accomplices might be and lo and behold, there was an option at that point to maybe get that 15 years back. that was his motivation. >> in other words, said barbara's attorney, wolfe would sell out barbara any way he could to get a reduced sentence. of course, there was the uncomfortable fact of the two unprompted confessions of his ex-wives, in which he portrayed barbara as sort of a black widow, intent on having david killed. >> well, there are two versions

that he gave to each of those ex-wives. >> the stories were not entirely consistent, said attorney seltzer. besides, barbara was at home in arizona the night of the murder. how does he know that? >> a phone bill from her mother's home placing calls to her home in arizona that night when nobody else could have been there. >> what's a phone bill of that age doing lying around somewhere where it can be grabbed for evidence by the defendant? >> the father was a meticulous record keeper. >> what's to say that wasn't an answering service that picked it up. >> michael wolfe testified in their first deposition that they had no answering machine. >> could have been someone else in the home. >> we questioned mr. wolfe about that and he said nobody was there. >> but as the defense prepared for trial in december 2010, something changed. >> there was new evidence discovered. >> lenny is the prosecutor who inherited the case. >> and that new evidence is what we considered a jailhouse snitch

and he came forward and said that michael wolfe fabricated the entire story about barbara participating in the murder of david jackson. >> the jailhouse snitch was well-known, the d.a. said, mostly for the false information he provided. still, after three years in jail, it was enough to get barbara released and placed on house arrest pending trial. and, then, prosecutor bendale met michael wolfe to ask him about testifying against barbara. didn't go well. >> the blow came to me when he said, what am i getting in return? what will my sentence be reduced to? >> now the state reassessed its options. >> i think with any case you're tortola jurors in the case taking a 50/50 chance. of the queen versus david swain it's the lack of forensics, the lack of physical evidence that a had just finished hearing from 17 prosecution witnesses. jury wants to see but most one witness that had captured importantly, again, the fact their attention in particular that you have a co-defendant that is giving the testimony was rhode island chiropractor mary basler. which is the foundation of this prosecution who wanted something >> what about marry, was she a in return. girlfriend? >> the people who conducted the

>> she was a girlfriend after investigation, you know, deep shelley' passing. down in their guts are sure that >> and what about at her place and attempt of a kiss? she was at the center of it. did you think so, too? >> what i think as a person and >> i'm not going to deny that. what i think as a prosecutor, i did i cross a line that i probably in retrospect would have to keep them separate. like to have back? sure. and while i may have believed but there was no intimacy. that barbara was a full participant in this, what i can prove is totally different. >> mary was feeling a little bit of a void, do you think? >> so you made an offer? >> i think mary was just being an emotional friend. >> we made an offer. she was fun to be with. >> barbara britton was offered she was a smart gal. two more years of house arrest and eight years of probation. she was em fa that the particular. she would avoid trial but she >> is mary motivation for murder? >> absolutely not. had to plead guilty to accessory >> but what about those letters after the fact in david's david wrote to her? murder, meaning she acknowledged knowing about the crime but only after it occurred. >> you've got a dead wife on the one hand and my soulmate on the something she had always denied. other? did you give the prosecution >> you've got to remember, hi ammunition with that? >> he really laid into me. the option to go to trial and i probably didn't answer things take it as just taking your chance with 12 to 14 other -- in the way that the jury liked. >> jurors who would hear a story >> the idea with shelley gone, david swain would get the money and the girl is a juicy motive but swain's attorney says it about a control freak who very

isn't true. cleverly manipulated men to get >> the idea of david them to do awful things? >> right. they already know what you are intentionally attacking his wife there for. >> even though she accepted the isn't borne out by history. he's got no history of violence, deal, barbara was not happy. true, there was no prison time, he's never raised a hand to anyone in his life. but she was a felon now. >> yet, what else but an attack >> you have a title over your head. it's life-changing. would explain shelley's broken it's very life-changing. dive gear thrown strewn across the ocean floor. >> exactly. >> do you swear or affirm to >> why is this fin like this? tell the truth, the whole truth, >> right. nothing but the truth? >> yes, doi. >> absolutely, unbreakable piece of gear, what happened to this >> detective velasquez joined woman? >> all valid questions. the patty rescue diver's manual barbara at the sentencing points to the signs of a hearing. >> judge, for the record, david jackson's mother would like to panicked diver and it says that speak. >> of course. they reject their gear. >> david's mother read an impact statement. >> jurors evidence that this was ripped off during a violent >> barbara, i am quite endlessly struggle. for 24 years. >> and the struggle might have i've wanted to die myself to be with david. been with herself. >> her gaze fixed on the woman her son once loved. it's not uncommon, in fact, it's routine. >> you are guilty.

>> why would that happen? michael wolfe is where he should it seems inexplicable. be in prison. your father is where he should >> when you're in a panicked be and you would join him one situation, rationale goes out of your brain. day because that is where you should be. in hell. >> david's brother mark was not and when you're under water, the at all sure that justice was only rational is getting to the served. surface they start clawing things off. >> if you lose in trial, that's god's will. you can't control that. >> and you've seen it, it's documented in the sport? >> i have rode people to the but i think it should have gone surface, slowing them down so to trial. they don't go to the surface too fast, replace the gear as they i think society in two years are relationshiping it off their faces. when she comes off of house arrest needs to worry. >> we have a picture of david. >> but his mother -- >> a fresh angle for jurors to >> there is justice. ponder about shelley's death, yes. could something have started a and she's a felon now for life. chain of events to cause shelley she's got to live with all that. i don't. tyre to fatly panic? every time i get out of bed in the morning, one leg says guilty they read excerpts from her own dive logbook a. diary in which and the other one says felon. she noted each time she had lost it a bit to fear. >> and as for the detective who dive 167, some initial panic. so doggedly pursued the case who dive 183, panic. now thinks a murderer got away -- dive 266, i admit, i panicked. >> at first i was disappointed so i had to make peace with it

dive 274, panicked a little or and when i put my head down at more. the pillow at the end of the but what about the prosecution's night, she's a felon. claim that if you believe david mentally when you're in prison swain's description of his dive, here, do you ever escape that? he had to have been right there >> as for barbara, barbara is spending her house arrest in her when shelley was drowning, eight minutes after she entered the father's home, that old vw, the water. the defense said, how do we know one that they allegedly carried shelley stopped breathing after eight minutes. in truth, she was so petite, she off david's body is still parked outside. her day is surrounded by the was known for using less air course of her father's alleged than an average diver. if she was just sipping at her sin and many still feel cursed air supply, that means she by the part she played in the murder. >> so the allegations that you likely died well after eight minutes. took part would suggest that the two of you were living together >> i wasn't there. by the time this happened, i was hundreds of yards away. and equally aware of your mutual guilt. >> but if shelley had died >> that's what it would suggest alone, what about that con but that's not how it is. >> there's a curse, huh? >> it seems like it. founding clue on the ocean floor, her dive fin stuck toe first into the sand? the prosecution claims it was >> you're surrounded by it even now. >> yeah, i'm surrounded by it. forced in during the attack. the defense wondered about that my dad, he's passed on and moved theory and "dateline" tried it on and i'm living it. every minute.

out, conducting our own ex peertment with the help of keith royal. >> that's all for this edition >> i went down on the same area of "dateline" friday. and tried to do the same thing we'll be back again for "dateline" sunday. myself with the fin on and it i'll is he you tomorrow on was impossible. the only way i could actually "today." i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, good get it to stick in the sand was physically with my hands putting night. it into the sand. >> in other words, royal says someone must have put it there intentionally. but who? in court, the defense brought all the pieces together in its theory of what might have [captioning made possible by constellation energy group] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- happened on shelley tyre's final dive, number 355. she descends the mooring line a. bruce found later in the autopsy >> remember this? >> remember this? had been bothering shelley on her left foot. so she peals her fin off to retrieve is later. she nears the twin wrecks and the slight nuisance escalates fast. frustration takes hold and mushrooms into full-blown panic. she can't tap it down like

before, irrationally she tears off her mask and rejects her regulator. and out of sight of her husband david, she tragically, fate stately losing control next, david swain takes the stand and dark family secrets were about to be revealed. would they seal his fate or set him free? coming up -- >> i've had decades of horrific things happen to me. >> a painful past and a dramatic turn of events. >> fighting for my life. >> the bombshell that came after the verdict. and, later, in our next hour of "dateline," "buried secrets," a decade long mystery. >> he was going to call me in a couple of days. he never called. >> years after he vanished a. rookie detective finally broke the case. >> i said, oh, my gosh -- >> a killer revealed. case closed? not quite. >> then we got the real story. >> a bombshell revelation. was she really a bereaved ex? >> i'll always love david.

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we really need to remember that she was this incredible life force and she had all this energy, positive energy. so every time it came around to the criminal trial, i thought, please, god, let somebody find a way back to letting people know how wonderful she was. >> that special light of shelley tyre, dearly missed by so many who knew her.

was her husband, david swain, responsible from taking it from the world? or was he an innocent man whose private ways made a an accident look like murder? a jury in tortola would soon decide, but not before david answer questions from his island attorney. >> mr. swain, when you went on the dive with shelley tyre on that 12th of march 1999, did you kill shelley tyre? >> i could not, i would not, dream of taking the rock of my life out of the world. that's just -- no, i did not. >> did you in any way, during the course of that dive, deprive shelley tyre of air? >> the last thing in the world is i would deprive shelley of anything. so i certainly didn't deprive her of air. >> then it was the prosecution's turn. >> you held her down. >> i did not.

>> you made her become unconscious. >> i did not. >> and this was within eight minutes of the dive. >> it was not. i did not. you are making false accusations. >> you got a little edgy on the stand? >> i'm sure i did. >> a little abrasive, a little in the face? >> i'm fighting for my life. >> missing from his testimony was the grief of a husband who had lost his wife to a diving accident. >> did you get penalized for not showing them a tissue lent soul that they expected? >> i'm positive i've been penalized for not being what people expect. >> david swain says he's always had trouble expressing emotion in a way people expect. it's a problem that he attributes to a very dark and secret past. >> i've had decades of horrific things happen to me and the only way that i have survived all of these horrific things that have happened is to just muck kell

down and keep marching. >> you had a really safe childhood, safe to say? >> safe to say. >> when david was in his early teens, his father was accused of sexually abusing a family teen. then he began living as a woman and changed his name to diane. >> what can your teenage brain make of that, my dad is going to be known as diane? >> since we didn't have a relationship, i didn't think a whole lot about it. at the time it was something i suppressed. >> but nothing was more traumatic than the action of his younger brother ricky. >> at the time he was having his own personal problems. >> my first reaction was, boy does he make a nice appearance, a clean-cut, nice looking young man. >> but former minnesota prosecutor jim eric son says nothing could be further from the truth. in 1976, 18-year-old ricky swain snapped and murdered his mother betty by bludgeoning her to death in the basement of their home. >> the skull was crashed in in

two places. there was lots of rage in this death. >> horrible, horrible event. >> yes, it is. >> back in tortola, david swain's psychologist was prepared to explain in court how these horrible events could account for david's emotionless and some say suspicious behavior. >> as strategy, company see how it could blow both ways. it might blow back and say, what is this instability going on in this family? is there a demon seed? people with a pop psychology understanding might say, what's going on with this? >> so should a person be convicted of murder because of pop psychology? >> was it a risk? >> i'm sorry, but i didn't have a choice to live this truth. the truth is what it is. i'm just wanting to tell the truth. >> but the defense's strategy was never tested. the judge denied the psychologist the opportunity to testify, in part because he was a psychologist, not an m.d.

so now it was left to the jurors to decide david swain's fate. >> i'm coming to you live here on a road down from the supreme court with the news that the jury is currently deliberating. >> then just after five hours came word, there was a verdict. >> as they are walking in, i pretty much knew. >> you're looking at their faces and -- >> and their body language and pretty much knew. >> guilty or not guilty of murder? >> we the jury find the accused guilty. >> guilty of first-degree murder. the sentence, 25 years. >> how do you face that kind of time? >> one day at a time. >> give me a quick thumbnail of what your cell was like. >> 6 by 10, a couple of bunks, a comb mode, no screens on the

bar, so the window, anything and anything would come in. >> bugs? >> bugs were the easy part. it's the rats and animals and all. other things, those are the hard parts. >> david swain settled back into the misery of prison life. his only comfort was the prospect of an appeal. >> did you think he had a ghost of a chance? >> i did. i did. this wasn't a good trial. this wasn't a fair trial. >> almost two years after his guilty verdict, david swain returned to court. a three-judge appellate panel listened to more than three hours of oral arguments and then did something no one anticipated. >> the head judge ends it all by looking right at me and saying, mr. swain, you're free to go. you know, obviously my mouth dropped open and i'm in shock again. so i just sit there for, i don't know, 15, 20 seconds and the bailiff guys, he he nudges me and he says, mr. swain, you've got to get up and walk out now. >> why did he walk? the panel believed in part that the trial judge had been biased towards the prosecution in her

instructions to the jury. what's more, they ruled swain shouldn't be retried because too much time had passed since slooel's death for swain to get a fair trial. so just like that, david swain was a free man. >> that was one of the most surreal moments of my life. >> did you think about shelley as you left the island? >> i think about shelley almost every day. but, yes, i was thinking about her that day. >> david swain is now living back on the rhode island coast, not far from the home he once shared with shelley. >> do you have to pinch yourself sometimes that you're back in new england? >> it certainly is good looking over at jamestown and looking at this body of water where i have spent years exploring and teaching and enjoying. >> but it's also home to many people who remain convinced david swain got away with murder. >> is there still a cloud over you? are people always going to say, david swain, he got away with killing his wife?

that he was cut loose on a technicality? >> that's their opinion. i can't tell you what to think. i don't want to tell you what to think. if you want to hear the facts, i'll be happy to share the facts. but i'm not going to spend a lot of energy trying to change something that you've made up your mind on. >> shelley's grave stone is also close by for those that loved anded a fired her to visit and to find the lessons hiddened beneath the surface of this senseless tragedy. >> if i was to ask shelley, what do i do about this, given this situation, she would say, focus on the here and now, find the good in everybody that you see around you, see life's blessings. if you need help, i'll put them out for you. that's what she would do. >> now our second hour of "dateline." a mother's search for her son. for years, the woman in our next story lived in the most painful kind of limbo.

there wasn't a shred of evidence of what happened to him. to solve this cold case, she had also need the help of a killer. here's keith morrison. >> it's a strange thing that happens among the bogs of marshs, the soft soil here in coastal florida. things of a way of coming up, things buried in the ground, in the past, or both. it was july 2003, beaches quiet, snowbirds back up north. so no one noticed atd first what was starting inland in a town called pembrooke pines, where donna, a rookie, really, had just been assigned to a brand-new cold case unit. >> the sergeant came into the office and dropped a box of papers right on my desk and said, here, see what you can do

with this. and i began to wonder, hmm, is this a test to see could she really do this? >> the case was a challenge was an understatement and now all the forgotten mystery, the disappearance 15 years earlier of a man named david jackson. the file offered nothing, really, beyond the basic bio. to unearth the truth, even the rookie cop knew she'd have to learn about the victim. so she began with something easy. she found david jackson's mother, judy carlson. >> he said, are you sitting? i said yeah. case. >> the detective and judy talked about david for hours. she loves talking about her boy, even now to us. >> david was my first child.

he was just -- loved everything and everyone. ♪ happy birthday to you >> he would walk in the room and everyone would be a magnet to him. >> david was the eldest of judy's three children and mark jackson idolized his older brother. >> he looked out for me and he was that way with his friends, with everybody. >> doug brown was one of those friends. brown and david worked together at a burger king where david became a manager. brown also had a front row see to the budding romance between jackson and a pretty 16-year-old co-worker named barbara brit ton. >> they were together that's awesome. if you can find love, that's awesome. that's what we all want. >> detective vasquez may paid a visit to the girl. happy to help, she told the detective. same thing she told us when she talked about the david that she knew. >> a very good looking man,

started talking, sweet, nice, kind, swept me off my feet. he was a good guy. >> and as she talked it became clear, deep emotions would not stay beneath the surface. >> i was young. i was still going to school. this was my first love. >> two youngsters in love and then things happen, don't they? >> mom, i've got something to tell you. i said, what? and he said, barbara is pregnant. >> judy was surprised, a little worried maybe but nowhere near as barbara's parents, particularly her dad, an ex marine who was not very impressed with young mr. jackson, or so judy heard. >> mr. britton did not like him. i don't know why. >> still, david was walking on air. >> he said, mom, i'm going to have sell the truck and i said why and he said i'm going to be

a father and a husband. >> so the hand some boy and girl got married, even though they were just kids and very soon parents to a son john jackson and they fought, made up, fought again, babies having babies is no easy thing. >> we were just too young and to have a baby and all the time -- it was difficult for him and it was difficult for me. >> so who is was the first person to say, you've got to have a divorce? >> my dad. >> how did david take it? >> he was just kind of like -- let's just -- >> get it over with? >> find somebody, some lawyers and see what we have to do and that was it. >> the two divorced in 1985. david arranged weekend visits with john. >> how were they together? >> wonderful. johnny just clung to him. they loved each other. >> they all moved on. a couple of years later, barbara

married again, michael wolff, an ex-military man like her dad. about the same age as her dad, too. >> your dad and new husband probably saw eye to eye a lot. >> they sure did. they had a lot in common, they would talk a lot. >> wolf took barbara and john to live with him in arizona. but david wanted to be a part of his son's life. so he traveled out west to see the boy. >> he went out there with a friend of his and they saw johnny for three days. i've got pictures of johnny in like the old western town and everything. >> maybe it was something about the distance, said barbara. >> we became very good friends and we used to talk a lot. >> in fact, what she felt deep in her heart never did go away. >> i'll always love david. >> and then it was june 25th, 1988, david's brother mark was flying into town to visit the family. david was to pick him up at the airport but when mark arrived,

he waited and waited, no david. mark jackson had terrible feeling. >> no matter what, he would have been there for me. i knew something was wrong, i knew something bad happened. >> oh, yes, very bad. and as the rookie detective donna val las kwez poked around deep in the past, that something was reaching up through the mud to tell her its long neglected story. when we come back, just maybe nature could do some of the work. >> with the crazy weather and the water table that we have, if he were ever buried anywhere, somewhere along the line you're going to pop up. >> when "beuried secrets" continues. fwlarpz

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